Obama Denies National Security Leaks, New York Times Denies Taking DictationJune 08, 2012Listen to it Button

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RUSH: At Obama's little press gaggle today at the White House, an unidentified reporter stood up, said, "There are a couple of books out with interesting details about national security issues. There are reports of terrorist Kill Lists that you've supervised. There are reports of cyberattacks on Iranian nuclear programs that you've ordered." That would be Stuxnet. "First of all, what's your reaction to this information getting out in public, and, secondly, what is your reaction to lawmakers that accuse your team of leaking these details in order to promote your election?"

OBAMA: The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. It's wrong, and, you know, people, I think, need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me here approach this office. And we're dealing with issues that can touch on the safety and security of the American people, our families, or our military personnel, or our allies. And so we don't play with that.

RUSH: Somebody is. Somebody is. I remember leading into the Iraq war, battle plans, war plans would show up in detail, specific war plans for Iraq and later Afghanistan, would show up on the front page of either the New York Times or the Washington Post. When those leaks took place we all speculated that those leaks were coming from career appointees or political appointees from the Clinton years. Remember, Bush did not purge. As a show of good faith, trying to heal the wounds of America, put everybody back together, all of the political appointees over at the CIA, State Department, Pentagon, Bush left them there. He did not replace them with his own people, as a show of faith.

And it wasn't long before efforts to sabotage Bush military plans started showing up on the front page of the big newspapers and on the networks. And it was easy to speculate that the leakers were holdover Democrats, Clinton appointees trying to undermine Bush. And of course the Republican establishment didn't want to hear that. They thought when it came to foreign policy and national security, that members of the esta